'Amrus ibn Yusuf al-Muwallad al-Laridi (Arabic: عمروس بن يوسف المولد, died 808/9 or 813/4) was a Muwallad (probably of Visigothic origin)[citation needed] general of the Emirate of Córdoba and governor of Zaragoza.

Walls of the ancient Andalusi Qaṣbah of Talavera de la Reina.

Amrus, a native of Huesca, and his kinsman Shabrit (Arabic: شبريط) were mawālī servants of Aysun ibn Sulayman al-Arabi, who was the son of the wali of Barcelona and Girona. The kinsmen joined Aysun's brother when Matruh al-Arabi rebelled and entered Zaragoza. In Muslim year 175 (AD 791/2), Amrus turned on his master, and he and Sarhabil ibn Saltan al-Zawagi attacked Matruh with swords, killing him. Amrus then went to Córdoba, where he was rewarded by being named wali of Talavera. In 802, he was sent from Toledo as general against another Zaragoza rebel, taking Zaragoza and Huesca, expelling Bahlul ibn Marzuq and fortifying a settlement that would become Tudela, installing there his son Yusuf ibn Amrus. Zaragoza again rebelled in December, 802, this time under Fortun ibn Musa, apparently a member of the Banu Qasi, and Amrus was in the year 803/804 appointed as governor of Zaragoza. He installed his kinsman, Sabrit, in Huesca. In 807, he quelled a rebellion in Tudela, and upon the death of Oriol of Aragon, he occupied the county of Sobrarbe, which was only regained by Aragon under Aznar Galíndez I in 814. This conforms with the timeline provided by the chronicler Al-Udri, who reports that Amrus held Zaragoza for 40 days short of ten years, placing his death in 198 (813/4), but al-Udri indicated that others place his death in 193 (808/809).

His family, the Banu Amrus (Arabic: بنو عمروس), continued to be involved in the regional politics of the upper Ebro valley. Grandson Amrus ibn Umar ibn Amrus (عمروس بن عمرو بن عمروس) rebelled in Huesca in 870, capturing his cousin Lubb ibn Zakariyya ibn Amrus (Arabic: لبّ بن زكريّا بن عمروس), and killing the amil Musa ibn Galind (موسى بن قلند), allying himself with the amil 's paternal uncle García Íñiguez of Pamplona. However, he shortly was enticed to return to Cordoban loyalty, being made governor of Toledo. Also active at this time were his brother Zakariyya ibn Umar, his uncle Zakariyya ibn Amrus and the latter's son Umar ibn Zakariyya. Mas'ud ibn Amrus (مسعود بن عمروس), son of Amrus ibn Umar, was the last of the family, being killed in 884 by kinsman Muhammad al-Tawil of Huesca, a member of the Banu Sabrit, the descendants of the kinsman and ally of Amrus ibn Yusuf. Muhammad founded a family known as the Banu al-Tawil that would rule what was effectively a short-lived taifa state at Huesca in the late 9th and early 10th century before themselves being supplanted by the Banu Tujib of Zaragoza.

Family tree

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 Family tree
  
Banu Amrus
  
Banu Šabrit
  
Banu al-Tawil
Š....h
RašidYusuf
ŠabritAmrus
ibn Yusuf
Abd Allah
ibn Šabrit
Musa ibn
Šabrit
Umar ibn
Amrus
Yusuf ibn
Amrus
Zakariyya
ibn Amrus
Abd al-Malik
ibn Abd Allah
Walid ibn
Abd Allah
Isa ibn
Musa
Zakariyya
ibn Umar
Amrus
ibn Umar
Umar ibn
Zakariyya
Lubb ibn
Zakariyya
Muhammad
al-Tawil
Muhammad
ibn Walid
Zakariyya
ibn Isa
Asbag
ibn Isa
Abd al-Malik
ibn Isa
Mas'ud Ibn
Amrus
Abd al-Malik
ibn al-Tawil
Amrus ibn
al-Tawil
Furtun ibn
al-Tawil
Musa Aznar
ibn al-Tawil
Yahya ibn
al-Tawil
Lubb ibn
al-Tawil
Walid ibn
al-Tawil
Abd al-Malik
ibn Furtun
Abd al-Malik
ibn Musa
Yahya
ibn Lubb
Walid ibn
Abd al-Malik

Sources

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  • Alberto Cañada Juste, "Los Banu Qasi (714-924)", in Principe de Viana, vol. 41, pp. 5–95 (1980).
  • Fernando de la Granja, "La Marca Superior en la Obra de al-'Udrí", Estudios de la Edad Media de la Corona de Aragón, vol. 8 (1967), pp. 457–545
  • Évariste Lévi-Provençal, Histoire de l'Espagne musulmane (1944-1953).

References

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